Product Description

For active toddlers exploring their world, this energetic book bursts with the noisy sounds children love to imitate.Honk! Honk! Beep! Beep! Zoom City zooms with cars—and dogs!— on the go. Active toddlers, busy exploring their world, will love this energetic book that’s filled with the noisy sounds they love to imitate.

Honk! Honk! Beep! Beep! Zoom City zooms with cars—and dogs!— on the go. Active toddlers, busy exploring their world, will love this energetic book that’s filled with the noisy sounds they love to imitate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #397309 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-28
• Released on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Board book
• 8 pages

From School Library Journal
PreSAA fast-paced, zip-zapping board book that begs to be read with as much gusto as possibleApreferably three or four times in a row. "Away we go!/Old cars, new cars,/ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!/Big cars,/little cars,/BE-BOP,/KA-ZOOM!" The bright and busy illustrations are packed with energy. The edges blur a bit (since the cars are racing around so fast) and the pages are dotted with electric squiggles and jagged lines outlining the various cars. A whiz-bang choice for toddler collections.ALisa Gangemi Krapp, Sousa Elementary School, Port Washington, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
In the new Harper Growing Tree series (see Cummings, above), a Go Dogs, Go! for the '90s. Hurd (Art Dog, 1996, etc.) piles dogs into cars, and allows them to drive through the neon-washed streets of the city: ``Big cars, little cars, be-bop, ka-ZOOM!'' The canines honk, bop, and race until a smash-up temporarily puts them out of commission. A little tinkering in the repair shop fixes up their vehicles as good as new. This stylish, jazzy cruise is depicted in illustrations that are part cartoon, part paste-up, where vintage cars and more futuristic models have streaks of colored light and gleaming chrome to tantalize young eyes. The melange of colors and collage practically guarantees a joy ride. (Board book. 1-4) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author
The author and illustrator of several books for children, including Mystery on the Docks, Mama Don't Allow (both Reading Rainbow Featured Selections), and Art Dog, Thacher Hurd makes his home in Berkeley, California.

Customer Reviews

Hands-down favorite baby book
This was given to us as part of a basket of books for my newborn son, who was an avid story-listener from two months on, and it was his favorite for well over a year. My daughter, who just turned one, is far less interested in books in general, but her face lights up with delight when we bring out Zoom City. The bright graphics and sound effects engage even the youngest babies. My husband and I can recite it by heart, which comes in handy since both kids like to hear the words even when the book's not around. I always include a copy of Zoom City with every "new baby" gift I send. I can't say enough about this book.

bright illustrations and fun words
I will start with my complaint, since no other reviewer has mentioned a complaint: the crashing. There is a scene where the cars are going too fast and they crash and the tow truck comes to take the car to the repair shop. Until this point my 1 year-old toddler knew nothing about crashes. Immediately he began crashing his toy cars, planes, boats, trains, into each other and furniture, etc. destroying things and scratching furniture and walls in the process. (He never did crashes before and he seems to think crashes are fun and harmless.) This book basically caused us a big discipline problem! The book portrays crashes as nothing bad--and I had to try to explain that real car crashes are not fun, they are dangerous and sometimes people get hurt, etc. Other than the crash issue, I enjoy this board book. The scenes are bright, the text very sing-songy, and it is a quick read that is requested to be repeated many times. My son especially loves the repair shop which has several kinds of tools, and I am to name each one over and over. I don't think that crashing belongs in a book for one year-olds, which is the age the publisher indicates is appropriate for this book. Publishers take note: we need more books with "tools" as the main theme!

Addendum: We've been reading this book for 5 years now and both of my sons love it. I have learned once they learn of crashing toys they never stop; I've seen it in boys other than my own as well and their start on crashing was not due to reading this book, it came from just playing with toys. My kids also love to talk about the tools in the book; it is hard to find books for toddlers with tools in them.

My kids like the cadence of the text and they memorize it. As my firstborn got older and changed developmentally, he came to see that car crashes are not a good or happy thing. A good way to teach this is to point out accidents we pass while driving on the road or to point out smashed cars we pass in at auto repair shops. Also when we hear an ambulance I wonder aloud if someone was hurt in a car crash and that I hope they are alright and not too hurt.

Update 12/2008: Amazon won't let me edit the star rating. I tried to change it to 5 stars to reflect my changed opinion.

Enjoyable from 9 months to 19 months and still going....
This book is my sons favorite book and has been for almost a year now. When he was 9 months old he enjoyed the pictures mostly; very bright, bold and expressive collages. Next, around 1 year, he started enjoying the expressive words ("be bop, kazoom"). At 19 months he has a couple favorite pages, the ones with action (crashing cars). This book has something for a wide range of young children to enjoy. Even more amazing, the adults haven't tired of it either! It is an easy book to read with a lot of different sounds and expressions. I highly recommend Zoom City.